Israel’s recognition of Somaliland has renewed pressure on the UK to follow suit. Former attorney general Sir Michael Ellis urges Somaliland is a pro-Western democracy with strategic value in the Horn of Africa
LONDON — Israel’s decision this week to recognize Somaliland as a sovereign state has reignited a long-simmering debate in London over whether Britain should finally extend formal recognition to a territory that has functioned as a de facto nation for more than three decades.
In a forceful intervention, Sir Michael Ellis, a former U.K. attorney general and Conservative member of Parliament, argued that Britain should “follow Israel and recognise Somaliland,” describing the Horn of Africa territory as a rare pro-Western, democratic outlier in a volatile region and a strategic opportunity the West can no longer afford to ignore.
“Here’s a nation which actually exists which Britain should recognise,” Ellis wrote, contrasting Somaliland’s institutions and stability with what he portrayed as the West’s inconsistent approach to recognition elsewhere.
Israel’s “forward-leaning” diplomacy
Ellis framed Israel’s move as an example of what he called the country’s “punchy and forward-leaning” diplomacy, rooted in “old-fashioned realpolitik” rather than sentiment.
“To prove this point, yesterday the Israelis took a bold, practical and pro-Western political step by recognising Somaliland, near the Gulf of Aden, as a sovereign independent state,” he said.
In Ellis’s telling, Israel’s broader diplomatic posture has emphasized pragmatism and consequences.
He pointed to Israel’s decision to shut its embassy in Dublin following what he described as Ireland’s “morbidly anti-Israel stance,” and to diplomatic speculation that Israel could sever ties with Norway amid increasingly hostile rhetoric from Oslo. At the same time, he noted, Israel has announced new diplomatic relations with countries such as Bolivia and Fiji.
“But Israel’s pragmatic focus is about progress,” Ellis wrote, arguing that Somaliland now sits at the center of that strategic calculus.
A strategic foothold on the Gulf of Aden
Somaliland, which lies across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen, occupies a stretch of coastline near one of the world’s most important shipping corridors. Ellis described it as “an acutely Western-friendly Muslim nation” and “unique in the region as a vibrant democracy.”
He pointed to its internal political development, respect for women’s rights and growing economy, as well as its willingness to deepen ties with Western powers. According to Ellis, Somaliland has signaled that, in exchange for formal recognition from Washington, it would be open to supporting the construction of a U.S. military base on its coast — a move that would be “of huge strategic importance in that volatile region.”
The waters off Yemen have become a focal point of global concern as Houthi forces, backed by Iran, have attacked international shipping lanes. Those attacks, Ellis argued, have hurt not only Israel but also “the Egyptian and European economies,” prompting heavy U.S. airstrikes against the Houthis earlier this year.
In that context, he suggested, Somaliland offers the West a stable partner at a critical maritime chokepoint.
A distinct legal and historical case
Ellis also made a legal argument for recognition, distinguishing Somaliland from other contested claims to statehood.
“Unlike with the recent recognition of Palestine there is a good legal case for recognising Somaliland as a nation,” he wrote.
British Somaliland was a U.K. protectorate from 1884 until 1960, governed from Aden and, at times, administered as part of British India. In June 1960, Britain granted the territory independence. Only days later, its newly independent government voluntarily entered into a union with the former Italian colony to the south, which had just become Somalia.
That union, Ellis noted, unraveled amid Somalia’s collapse into civil war in the late 20th century. By the early 1990s, Somaliland had withdrawn from the arrangement and reasserted its independence, while Somalia descended into prolonged instability.
“Thirty years later, in the early 1990s, Somalia was the basket case it still is today,” Ellis wrote, adding that Somaliland has since sought to “discontinue its voluntary union with its southern neighbour.”
An unrecognized democracy
Today, Somaliland operates as an autonomous state with its own government, elections, security forces and currency, yet it remains unrecognized by Britain, the United States and most of the international community.
Ellis argued that this is not due to a lack of merit, but to geopolitical inertia and opposition from hostile regional actors.
“A further thirty years on and today Somaliland is effectively autonomous but has struggled to gain formal legal recognition,” he wrote, blaming Western distraction — “obsessing about Gaza to the exclusion of much else” — and resistance from states “hostile to the West in the region” that do not want to see “a pro-West Muslim democracy” succeed.
Drawing on a visit he made last year, Ellis said he saw “first hand the political and strategic value in granting their wish for international recognition.” He highlighted the rapid development of Berbera port, which he said is emerging as a key trading hub with significant potential for expansion.
He also suggested that Somaliland could soon join the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco in normalizing relations with Israel under the Abraham Accords, as more Muslim-majority countries pursue engagement with Israel and reject extremist ideologies.
A challenge to London
At the heart of Ellis’s argument is a direct challenge to the British government’s priorities.
“The British Government should follow Israel and recognise Somaliland,” he wrote, insisting that formal recognition “would cost the West nothing — and yet would prove powerfully rewarding for both the West and the Somalilanders.”
Ellis contrasted that position with Britain’s recent decision under a Labour government to recognize a Palestinian state. He criticized that move as recognizing “a Palestinian state that does not actually exist,” which he described as hostile to the West and as having sent “a signal of reward to Hamas” after the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.
In his closing assessment, Ellis expressed skepticism that London would extend the same recognition to Somaliland, despite what he portrayed as its promise.
“Doubtless this same UK Government will decline to recognise Somaliland,” he wrote, “despite that country likely soon to become an economic powerhouse, a pro-Western oasis and a gold standard partner in a key strategic location.”
As Israel’s decision reverberates through diplomatic circles, the question Ellis posed remains open: whether Britain is prepared to recalibrate its Horn of Africa policy — and recognize a state that, while long ignored, has quietly built many of the institutions the West says it values most.
